


Moments that the words don't reach

by HelloIAmParker



Series: Thorns [5]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: As far as everyone knows Phil dies in Battle of New York, Bittersweet Ending, Gen, Hanahaki AU, Hanahaki Disease, Major character death - Freeform, Phil never knows, Rhodey Rhodes is the best bro, Tony and Pepper and Rhodey and Happy are family, Tony has Hanahaki and he doesnt get better, Tony loves Phil but there's no romance here, Tonys a good man, Unrequited Love, a slow descent into death, fight me, who does his best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:14:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25373725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelloIAmParker/pseuds/HelloIAmParker
Summary: He's...content. His body refuses to acknowledge that he loves a dead man, and there's nothing to fix.
Relationships: Phil Coulson/Tony Stark (Onesided)
Series: Thorns [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850929
Kudos: 44





	Moments that the words don't reach

**Author's Note:**

> I wish i had a reason for this. I honestly was reading Hanahaki aus and my brain was like 'what if they ~don't~ get better though?' and so i wrote it. Pairing chosen mostly because i adore Phil/Tony and Phil dying in new york gave me a good hook that i realized AFTER I wrote half of it. What can ya do.
> 
> Also. Hamilton title. Because i'm Hamilton trash.

People talk about Hanahaki like its instant death. But its not, it's a slow, meandering close up talk with death, while knowing you're either going to fall in love, or you're going to have a surgery that removes that person from your emotions.

No one knows where it really came from or how it happens, but the stories of it go back as early as cave paintings, pictures drawn on stone walls of people coughing up lavender and roses and either followed by happy joinings or graves.

There wasn't really an inbetween. These days, there's some supressants, but they don't do much, and more than half of the population is allergic to them, Tony included.

Hanahaki does as its going to do, and what its going to do is end up killing Tony.

* * *

Rhodey and Pepper know. Tony doesn't know why he's so in love with Phil Coulson, but it burns in his chest, aches his stomach. He thinks about telling him, but he doesn't have the courage. He doesn't even _know_ Phil that well, just...finds him funny and charming. And and and.

He doesn't know the name of all the flowers. What he knows is Phil is competent and quietly funny and Rhodey rubs his back as he chokes on gladiolas filling a trash can, and hyacinth curls from his throat. 

People try to assign meanings sometimes to the flowers, but honestly it comes down to whatever your body grows. All anyone can agree on is that you can't control it.

* * *

Tony quietly has a birthday party, and he finds out the arc reactor is killing him. How ironic. He doesn't know which will come first, but Phil comes by with things of Howards and Tony tries to snark except he ends up in the bathroom, flowers flooding the bathtub.

Tony already had shitty lungs and all he can do is lay over the side of it, and choke. Accept the tiny, life saving drops of oxygen that make their way past the petals. He still fixes the arc reactor but all he can think is its a bandage on a wound thats going to kill him anyway.

* * *

Theres a surgery. To remove the buds, and empty the lungs. Once you have the procedure, you lose that feeling your body ties into them.

No one knows how to works, but you lose emotions for the people that are tied into the flowers. Bodies are trash dumpsters, and while Tony tries to find scientific reasons - he can't. The surgery does what it does and Tony doesn't know why.

Its annoying.

Realistically....Tony has to have the surgery. He knows that. As maudlin as awful as it is, he can't let himself die because he loves someone. 

But then he thinks, he'll lose the feelings he has for Phil. They say you can sometimes be friends after the surgeries but in most cases, you just won't ever feel anything for the other person.

It sounds awful.

But then, the choice is taken out of his hands. Phil dies under Loki's staff and Tony doesn't stop coughing up bluebonnets for a week.

He has to have the surgery.

* * *

And then, perhaps he should have expected, they tell him he can't have the surgery.

"You won't survive." The doctor tells him bluntly. "Your body can't handle that kind of invasive surgery. Your lungs are too compromised."

She looks at him, sadly. In pity. Tony is going to die with flowers in his throat because Obadiah was a fuck stick. He nodded, looking at the papers she'd given him, pamphlets for help and resources. Tony takes them, knowing he'll never go.

* * *

Eventually, the press find out. Tony ends up hacking up lavender buds into a trashcan outside of Neiman Marcus with Pepper and the paparazzi's catch it.

Tony gives a short interview to Christine Everhart, which is the only journalist he speaks to one-on-one. Yes he's got Hanahaki, no his lungs can't handle the dis-planting surgery. Yes he knows who it is, and no he's not in a position to do anything about it. He asks people to please donate to Hanahaki relief funds in the face of any kind of support they want to give him directly, and that he's going to make the most out of his time left.

* * *

For a few days, people think maybe Stark was faking it, or just trying to start drama. But then word comes out about Pepper taking over the company. Tonys passed a suit on Rhodey. He's started making his patents free, offering petabytes of free information about things he's learned and researched, all for free. 

Its a death knell, a silent bell ringing to show Stark's time is coming to an end.

There's of course people who say Stark deserves it, for his weapons. For what he did. People jump on them for making fun of a dead man, and others still demand to know why Tony is sitting on a hoard of gold, all to himself.

Tony sees the tweets. He decides they're right, and he starts making plans for as many people he knows that he can take care of.

Tony asks for go fund me links. Starts pouring money into every charity he can think of. He loses his status as billionaire, sells off all his extra houses and cars and all his artwork. He stays quiet and hidden away, and when he's seen in public he looks pale. 

Rhodey never leaves his side, and it seems that world finally realizes....Tony Stark is dying. This isn't for show, or something that is going to be fixed by a last minute Hallmark Movie magic twist.

Tony is a quiet, older man who is going to die because he can't have a surgery.

There's something of an uproar the next time Tony is seen in public, eating lunch with Rhodey, and he's on oxygen. Like the people expect Tony to create something breathtaking and brilliant and swan out last minute with a fix.

But here's the truth - Tony is living with Rhodey, and needs supplemental oxygen to even breath. He's...content. His body refuses to acknowledge that he loves a dead man, and there's nothing to fix.

Slowly, but surely, Tony can't get out of bed. The flowers _growgrowgrow_ and Tony has a realization one early morning as Rhodey helps rub his back. He feels awful. He's ready to sleep. Pepper and Happy are still asleep, but they shuffle in quietly when Rhodey goes out to get a cup of water.

Tonys got Pepper and Rhodey and Happy around him, Dummy in the corner.

"....Think i'm gonna take a nap, Rhodey." He said softly, and everyone is just quiet, silent with tears as they put a hand on him.

* * *

There's a single tweet made from SI's twitter account, at 1042 am. 

[ Stark Industries Offical ][@SIOfficial : Anthony Edward Stark passed quietly in his sleep with his loved ones around him at about ten thirty this morning. Any other questions/arrangements will be addressed at a later date. Thank you. ]

* * *

Across the world, in a tiny van with a few other people, Phil Coulson takes the phone that Skye hands him, noting her grim appearance. He already knows what he's going to see, and the tweet about Stark's passing is unfortunate.

He wonders who it was, who Stark loved so deeply that it snuffed out that flame, and then hands the phone back. There's no way to know. No reason to dwell on it.

He has work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate Title / Summary : Death Knell, or how sometimes, a gentle, peaceful ending is all you can hope for. 
> 
> I didnt add a m/m tag or romance tag here because there isnt any to be honest. 
> 
> Also, i adore Phil and he simply had no idea about this, and then Fury fucked around in his head and Phil doesnt know what he doesn't know anymore. Sorry Phil. You got done did dirty.


End file.
